Monday, January 11, 2010

#70: Switching from Engineering to Business


Notre Dame Students have high expectations.  They expect a lot out of their professors: hoping for slides to be put online and class notes to be printed out.  They expect a lot from their Thursday nights: hoping for plenty of drinking and time to see all of their friends.  They expect a lot from their football team: a national championship or bust.  Most of all, however, Notre Dame Students expect a lot out of themselves.

Expecting a lot from themselves, students enter the University of Notre Dame expecting to participate in difficult and promising majors.  They state their intention to major in Pre-Med or Architecture or Science or Engineering knowing that these majors are complicated, and knowing that their completion will be challenging. 

Soon enough, however, Notre Dame Students will switch their major from Engineering (or a similarly taxing major) to Business (or a similarly less complicated major).

There are many reasons for this traditional switch in major (which usually comes in the second or third semester).  Some of these students had been originally pressured by their parents to do something they don’t want to do (and then rebel, because they are in college).  Many students were led to believe that their strengths were in math and science simply because they were great at these subjects in high school.  Other students simply do not know what they want to do with their life when they are 18 years old.

The most important reason, however, that students change their majors from engineering to business is so that these students have plenty of time to do things that are SO college at night and on the weekends (see #11).  While engineering classes have labs on Friday afternoons (and pre-med classes have their own things to do then), most business classes allow students to have wide open schedules on these Friday afternoons (and for upperclassmen, all of Friday) so that they can start their weekend off right.

Furthermore, the amount of work that business students have (and the level of attentiveness these students need for their classes) allow these students to spend many weeknights doing nothing but watching television and playing drinking games.  Once students realize that these are the things they want to take away from their college experience, they realize that it is time to change majors.

This major switch is exemplified by the science-business and math-business majors that appear for many sophomores.  These majors are briefly declared by many students who believe they need a change, but want to keep up the appearance that they are more academic than their business counterparts.  Usually they hold this distinction over the heads of their business-only friends for a semester or two pretending that they might actually go to med school until they realize the easier work load of a business major is the right way to go, and they declare a business-only major.

Overall, changing from engineering to a business major is one of the most popular major switches at the University of Notre Dame, a switch that is always taken lightly.

21 comments:

  1. Business is for bums.

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  2. Great Blog. Love everything your doing. Check out my blog as well at fightingirishnotredame.blogspot.com.

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  3. I've got a feeling this will be me.

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  4. proud finance major here with a single semester of engineering!! and yes business was easier than engineering. however, the class scheduling wasnt as easy as some other majors. i had english major friends who didnt have a single friday class after their freshman year.

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  5. you're a real asshole.
    if you dont like the students here then leave.

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  6. Haha, the author of this blog is an alumnus of ND. Are you really that uptight that you can't laugh at yourself?

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  7. anonymous two above me....what a tool this guy lives and breathes notre dame sorry you know this is true

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  8. Best blog I have ever read. Anonymous 3 up is the asshole business major. Pre-Med 4 LYFE!!

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  9. This is great....but you forgot to mention that for some the switch happens out of complete laziness (my roommate).

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  10. I stuck with engineering. I still wonder if that was the best choice... I should have gone to business!

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  11. you forgot to mention that business majors are assured an equally lucrative salary post-graduation than engineering majors (and certainly less debt than premed students!!!)

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  12. The business curriculum is definitely not as easy as non-business majors makes it out to be. I'm not sure why they always have to take shit for it. I think it's just the fact that the business students are generally more social people to begin with and are organized/know how to prioritize well enough that they can get their work done and still go out and have a good time. No need to hate.

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  13. Business gets crap because the entire college makes it so easy to pass. I'm business and could never go to a class, cram the night before the test, and pull off a B/B- easy. They curve like crazy and all the professors are pretty chill. I know so many people who rely on that, and they're the slackers that party all the time and give us a bad name... BUT to do well in business (A/A-), you have to put forth a whole lot of effort- not as much as engineers, but still significant.

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  14. I started freshman year in engineering. took Calculus 3, linear algebra/dif EQ, Physics 1 & 2, Intro to Biochemistry, and Intro to Engineering 1 & 2. Pulled off a 3.5 freshman year. My lowest grade at ND thus far? Accounting 1. Business is nowhere near as easy as you engineering and science majors make it out to be. Yes the material is less complicated, but everybody does far better on the tests to make up for it. Business is far more competitive than science or engineering. You'll get a higher gpa in business, but not by much

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  17. OMG! THIS IS SO TRUE, LOLZ.

    fuck yourself

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  18. Business majors make more money. Do you know any billionaire engineers

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    Replies
    1. entrepreneur=business

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    2. Major:
      Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering

      Not equal to Business.

      Therefore, still, "Yes."

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